OIL: BLACK GOLD AND GLOBAL WAR
SwissInfo (2003): "The oil fields determine the evolution of the world situation, but also peace and war in the producing countries". WE TRANSLATE (AND REPRODUCE) HERE, IN FULL, THE ORIGINAL ARTICLE OF SWISSINFO (and comment it at the end). Note : The ( brackets in italics ) and its content, as well as paragraphs in Bold , and the Underlines , are edits made today by ADN@+ to highlight the actuality of this article, which made projections in 2003 for 2023... The Article: "Black gold as a source of conflict and poverty" ( In 2003 ) "Swisspeace, the Swiss peace foundation, dedicated its annual conference to analyze this problem". "How can we break the vicious circle whereby governments and guerrilla groups invest the income from oil and other natural resource exports in armaments and thus destabilize entire countries? This was the key question with which Swisspeace director Heinz Krummenacher opened ( 30.10.2003 ) the annual conference of the organization, founded in 1998 and dedicated to analyzing war conflicts and their causes. "Oil plays a decisive role in the evolution of the world situation. But it is also essential for the functioning of the societies of the industrialized countries, which have achieved a high level of well-being thanks to this vital resource on which they depend so much. For the developing countries that export it, on the other hand, black gold "is today a curse," according to Krummenacher. History shows that wealth in one of the most coveted natural resources has not helped to alleviate the hardship of the poor. On the contrary. Oil generates power wars between corrupt elites, more bent on self-enrichment than on improving the living conditions of the population that is mired in poverty". Conflicts on the Rise "When a new oil field is discovered, political leaders and multinationals begin to negotiate in secret. Both sides make huge profits from business practices which, according to Oxford University professor Paul Collier, are unthinkable today in industrialized countries. Moreover, developing countries lack strong and consolidated democratic institutions. That is why they are often the scene of coups d'état and civil wars. Professor Collier predicts that in 20 years' time (in 2023), nearly one billion of the world's poorest people will be involved in 90% of armed conflicts . To illustrate that the exploitation of oil fields contributes to prolonging civil wars, Collier cited the example of Sudan, where in the last seven years not only revenues from oil exports have multiplied, but also expenditure on armaments. In contrast to Sudan, the authorities in neighboring Chad, with the support of the World Bank, have allocated the proceeds to education and health projects that benefit the population". Solutions "To break this vicious circle, it is imperative to impose a system of "transparency and absolute control" that will make it possible to clarify where the revenues from the oil business are flowing to". "This will serve, according to Professor Collier, to make multinationals aware that the pressure exerted by civil society and NGOs can damage their reputation. Another solution proposed at the annual Swisspeace conference is to establish a list of conduct guidelines. Ivo Kaufmann of the State Secretariat for Economic Affairs (Seco) pointed out that such 'soft laws', proposed by the UN and the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), are more effective than strict prescriptions. But it is also a question of "reducing our dependence on oil" and of betting more on "renewable energies". This is the appeal made to the importing countries by the Swiss Socialist MP Rudolf Rechsteiner. And finally, the annual conference of Swisspeace proposed the establishment of a Declaration of Duties guaranteeing "peaceful commercial practices"." However, representatives of the oil sector consider this to be a difficult goal to achieve. In the age of globalization, it is virtually impossible to determine where the raw material for the gasoline we consume today in Switzerland comes from. Swissinfo, Belén Couceiro". COMMENT The "soft" agenda that has been pursued over the past 20 years can be summed up in the phrase of oil industry representatives: "a difficult goal to achieve". Faced with the weakness of the Sustainability agenda centered on the "Soft" Responsibility agenda, it is worth looking at a second, later source: Visser (2010): CSR 2.0 and the New DNA of Business Paper by Wayne Visser Abstract "This paper argues that CSR, as a business, governance, and ethics system, has failed. This assumes that success or failure is measured in terms of the net impact (positive or negative) of business on society and the environment". "The paper contends that a different kind of CSR is needed if we are to reverse the current direction of many of the world’s most pressing social, environmental and ethical trends. The first part of the paper reviews business’s historical progress over the Ages and Stages of CSR: moving through the Ages of Greed, Philanthropy, Marketing, and Management, using defensive, charitable, promotional, and strategic CSR approaches respectively." "The second part of the paper examines the Three Curses of Modern CSR (incremental, peripheral, and uneconomic), before exploring what CSR might look like in an emerging Age of Responsibility". "Visser proposes a new CSR – called systemic or radical CSR, or CSR 2.0 – that "is based on five principles (creativity, scalability, responsiveness, glocality, and circularity) and forms the basis for a new DNA model of responsible business, built around the four elements of value creation, good governance, societal contribution, and environmental integrity." Taking Stock on CSR It is easy to dodge our responsibilities, but we cannot dodge the consequences of dodging our responsibilities – Josiah Charles Stamp Visser mentions: "For any discussion on CSR – by which I mean corporate sustainability and responsibility , but choose whichever label you prefer (corporate social responsibility, corporate citizenship, sustainability, business ethics) – my starting point is to admit that CSR has failed. The logic is simple and compelling. A doctor judges his/her success by whether the patient is getting better (healthier) or worse (sicker). Similarly, we should judge the success of CSR by whether our communities and ecosystems are getting better or worse. And while at the micro-level – in terms of specific CSR projects and practices – we can show many improvements, at the macro level almost every indicator of our social, environmental and ethical health is in decline". "I am not alone in my assessment or conclusion. Paul Hawken stated in The Ecology of Commerce (1994) that ‘if every company on the planet were to adopt the best environmental practice of the “leading” companies, the world would still be moving toward sure degradation and collapse.’ Unfortunately, this is still true. Jeffrey Hollender, founder, and CEO of Seventh Generation agrees, saying: ‘I believe that the vast majority of companies fail to be “good” corporate citizens, Seventh Generation included". "Most sustainability and corporate responsibility programs are about being less bad rather than good. They are about selective and compartmentalized “programs” rather than holistic and systemic change’ (Hollender & Breen, 2010)". "In fact, there is no shortage of critics of CSR. Christian Aid (2004) issued a report called ‘Behind the Mask: The Real Face of CSR’, in which they argued that ‘CSR is a completely inadequate response to the sometimes devastating impact that multinational companies can have in an ever-more globalized world – and it is actually used to mask that impact.’ " Visser has continued doing research and has recently published "Thriving": Since 2006, Visser and Salazar have cooperated in the research of situations that now look again out of any old normal, or new proposal previously discussed; however, going back to his principles in the "new" DNA of business is a relevant set, now that all the failures of the "soft" agenda, and the radicality in CSR, plus the thriving are confronting reality in terms of not only a pandemia but a war. Creativity, scalability, responsiveness, glocality, and circularity are not enough. While we write this article, gunfire is coming from all directions in Kyiv. The diagnosis is clear: while Putin goes real, intense, and focused in economics, the approach of NATO is incremental, peripheral, and fortunately not uneconomic. One can discuss if the Ukrainian corporations are built around the four elements of value creation, good governance, societal contribution, and environmental integrity, but now the question is if the intention of Russia business in Ukraine under Putin´s rule is going to be based and built around the same four elements of value creation for society, good governance for the country, societal contribution via extractive industries, and any environmental integrity in their action. Oil is valuable, and it causes war: there is no other truth. It seems necessary to go back to what big corporations in oil expressed in the article of the Swiss agency 20 years ago: CSR 1.0 and CSR 2.0 are not enough; the State has failed, and the Market also has failed. 10 IDEAS FOR THE FUTURE We need to think out of the box, and take into account what 20 thousand readers have marked in the book of ADN@+, in the form of 10 ideas, post pandemia, for acting in a situation of war: Liberalism as Globalism (the S2M case) Western Europe as another Great Russia (the BITC case) United States as another Greater China (the QI4TF case) Communities as Media and Government (the Sapap-Entsa case) Truths and Justice as News and Networks (the CSPInc.Tech case) Economics of Politics as Social Policy (the Hexagonal Dialogue case) Data as Stories (the Politics' Pub case) Sanctions as Airplanes (the Ukraine case) Freedom as Prison (the Chamorro case) Spiritual Rationality as Technological Modernity (the case of DNA@+) It is all about intense economic dialogue on real politics, understanding that we need to protect freedom and not the weak globalism of sustainability, measurement, and mediation only: that is necessary but not sufficient. It is required a geopolitical view where Western Europe and the USA can dispute the supremacy for real with Russia and China. That will never happen if politics do not run in the West towards communities, not only from the governments but also from the media. That is the only way how truths and justice will cover the news and create strong networks for turning the economics of politics into the key social policies that require to be developed for getting data development and stories based on that data. That way, sanctions, and incentives can work as airplanes, and freedom can act as a prison for the bad and not for the good. That will require another key issue: spiritual rationality in times of technological modernity. If communities do not opt for walking and saving energy, living near their jobs, hopefully at home, producing their own energy, and going back to a spiritual level where they can invest with real impact on renewable energy that comes from within, from their houses, their savings, their humility, the soul and nature, and not from goods, screens, machines, and guns, we will never get rid of oil and war, totalitarianism, and brutality. * Roberto F. Salazar-Córdova CEO, Hexagon Group (Hexagon Dialogue)
